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Violence against women

'SheFighter' Self-Defence Stokes Self-Confidence in Refugee Women Refugee women are at heightened risk for gender-based violence during the difficult experience of forced displacement. In Jordan, one group is getting a chance to learn self-defense a "SheFighter" technique that also focusses on building the women's self-esteem.

At 16 years of age, Maysam Hamed found herself in the women's prison in Jordan. Her crime was that she had run away from child abuse at her father's house, and had found herself on the streets, until the authorities took her in for administrative detention.

On most weekday afternoons, you can find 22-year-old Hiba* working at a salon in Amman. She has a long list of loyal customers and a steady income. But what few of her clients know is that she was once a child bride - an experience that haunted her for years.

Until now, the law in the Kingdom of Jordan allowed a rapist to avoid prosecution by marrying his victim for a minimum period of five years. In a historic move, on 3 August, the Parliament of Jordan voted to abolish the infamous "rape law"-article 308 of the Penal Code.

NABATIEH, Lebanon - In late 2013, Haneen, now 14, fled Syria with her parents and 10 siblings. As her family made its way to the Turkish border, her father sustained injuries that left him paralyzed. Fearing he could no longer feed his 11 children or protect his daughters, he married Haneen, then 13, off to a middle-aged Turkish man.